July 26, 2005

Charo and the others have been telling me to join the Toastmasters for
the longest time. After sifting through a number of Toronto-based
groups, I finally settled on Toast I.T.,
which meets every Tuesday a few blocks away from school. I attended my
first meeting as a guest, and I had tons of fun.

For the table topics game, we had one minute to prepare and one minute
to present. Topics were randomly drawn from an envelope, and people
could pass if they wanted to. Everyone would vote, and the winner
would have the privilege of keeping the club trophy/mascot for the
meeting.

Tonight’s topic: superpowers.

The table topics master started the game going. His superpowers were
encyclopedic knowledge and lightning-fast computation, and he made us
laugh by pointing out all of the everyday things that such superpowers
would solve. At what point does buying a transit pass make more sense
than buying tickets individually? How much would you need to pay for
gas in order to get somewhere? How much would you have to pay in
taxes? I’m sure he was thinking on his feet, but he was thinking so
quickly that the words flowed as smoothly as in any well-prepared
speech.

The group was surprised when I chose to rise to the challenge of
public speaking. I guess most guests are terrified of speaking in
front of a crowd of strangers. My superpower was the ability to win
beauty contests. I wracked my brain for a good use for that and I
couldn’t find any, but here’s sorta what I came up with: (can’t
remember that clearly)

I’m five feet one-fourth inch tall—and that one-fourth inch is very
important, mind you. I have glasses and pimples. But it doesn’t
matter, because I’ve got a superpower. I can win any beauty contest I
want. (pause) Who’d have figured? I love using my superpower to make a
point… and it certainly helps me promote my projects!

Back in the Philippines, there was an IT pageant. A search for role
models. (pause) The application asked for, of all things, bust size,
waist and hip measurements. (pause and shrug) With my A-cup, my
waist—let’s not even talk about my hips—I could go right in there,
win the thing… and _then_ show them that it’s not how you look but
what you _do_ that counts.

Much fun. =)

There was a girl who could catch and control fire, a guy who could
produce gadgets from somewhere, an old man who said that a forcefield
would be incredibly useful for deflecting the slings and arrows of
outrageous fortunes—or rotten tomatoes and lettuces from other
Toastmasters on the occasion of a really bad speech…

Good stuff! I voted for the forcefield guy because he was funny. =)
The sergeant-at-arms was happy to announce that someone had won by a
landslide…

… but not as happy as I was. ;) Well, that made my day. I can’t wait
to go to the next one!

ÃƒÂ§Ã‚Â§Ã‚ÂÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â¯ÃƒÂ§Ã‚ÂˆÃ‚Â¶ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â‹ÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚Ã‚Â‰ÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚Ã‚Â³ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚Â³ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚Â”ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚Â¥ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚Â¼ÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚Ã‚Â¿ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚Â¼ÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚Ã‚Â²ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚Â¼ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂƒÃ‚Â ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚ÂŒÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚Â‚ÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚ÂŸÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚ÂˆÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚Ã‚Â‰ÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â‚Ã‚ÂŒÃƒÂ£Ã‚ÂÃ‚ÂŸÃƒÂ£Ã‚Â€Ã‚Â‚ I was given a computer game by my father.

I need a Canada-based credit card for most of my purchases. I’ll keep
track of all of the purchases and pay it off in full each month. This
is more for convenience and credit history than actual credit. Also,
using a credit card for most of my transactions reduces the number of
debit transactions I’ll need to make at the ATM.

I need a savings account with Internet banking that either allows me
to auto-debit credit card payments at the end of each month or lets me
transfer the funds online. Most of my research grant will sit there.
If I can get high interest, all the better.

If not, I can maintain a current account with good ATM placement and
no withdrawal fees for my day-to-day cash expenses. I’m tracking cash
and credit separately, so I should be able to get an idea of how much
cash I’ll need each week.

I’ve decided to go with President’s Choice Financial because it’s a pretty good deal in terms of both offline and online banking. One of my labmates keeps her accounts there, and she’s quite happy with it. Good stuff. I’ll apply for a social insurance number (25 St Clair Avenue East, Toronto, Ontario, M4T 3A4), and then open a current and savings account. If I can get a credit card off them too, yay.

My index cards used to be my inbox as well as my semi-persistent
storage, but now I need something with a bit more order. I really like
my calendar, and if I can find a small six-ring planner with weekly
forms that also have day and week goals, I’d buy it in a jiffy. I’m
also interested in getting a six-ring puncher. Must find a large
stationery store…

Clair passed me a link to that nifty tutorial on folding shirts. I wonder if the trick works with the long-sleeved blouses I like wearing. See, _that’s_ why I post all of these personal stories online. People share useful tips and stories. =) Thanks, everyone!

It turns out I’m not the only one with laundry problems, too. Numerous
people have written in with their own misadventures and tips. Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

- Don’t mix colored shirts with white ones. (Yup, I knew that. Good thing I learned it from other people’s mistakes…)
– Use mesh bags for socks. (My mom will bring me a few.)
– If you fold your laundry right after you take it out of the dryer, you don’t really need to iron your clothes.

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